The present invention relates to a plug lock structure.
Automobile manufactures are now concentrating on the development of electric vehicles to lower exhaust gas emissions. An electric vehicle uses a battery as a power source. The battery must be charged, for example, in a household or at a charging station whenever the state of charge of the battery becomes low. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 9-161898 describes a charging system that is applied to an electric vehicle. In this charging system, a vehicle includes an inlet, which is connectable to a power feeding plug that extends from, for example, a household outlet of a commercial power supply. When the power feeding plug is connected to the inlet, the battery is charged by the power fed to the vehicle from the commercial power supply.
The time required to charge the battery of an electric vehicle is relatively long compared to filling a gasoline vehicle with fuel. Thus, the vehicle is often left unattended over a long period of time with the power feeding plug connected to the inlet of the vehicle. As a result, someone may remove the power feeding plug from the vehicle when power is being fed and connect the power feeding plug to an inlet of another vehicle to steal electricity. Further, the power feeding plug itself may be stolen.